Dreaming
by StarofCalamity
Summary: When Max is forced to watch the Flock be brainwashed, how will she cope when she finds them two months later? Will she make them remember or will she herself forget? "In my dreams I can fly so high,higher than the clouds" Nick says. "So can I"
1. Chapter 1

Ten minutes was all they needed. Ten minutes was all it would take to make the Flock forget. I couldn't make my friends, my family forget everything we had been through, could I? They could be normal.

Normal. .Education. Think about them,Max the Voice said, seemingly approving. Shaking I walked into the room. "You can't do that to my friends" I screamed, enraged. "Maximum, we can if it is what we think is best for them" the representative of the Government said, in a bored, droning voice. That's right - this time, it wasn't the School or Itex trying to ruin my life, it was the Government. If I didn't have enough on my plate... "You can't. It's against the law to just brainwash someone"  
"Human rights. Technically you are not human"  
Groaning inwardly I stepped back against the wall, eyeing the bodyguards. Maybe I could beat them up? They didn't look too strong. Of course, there would be re-enforcements, it could never be so easy, and anyway, that wouldn't save the Flock. "You'll have to find them to brainwash them" I challenged. "Not neccessary" the official said, and five men brought the Flock into the room. "You can't do this. What about us? This isn't fair!"  
"Life isn't fair!" the official said, and injected the five members of the Flock with a powerful memory loss formula. "What about me?" I whispered, getting ready to run. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair!  
"You can go now, Maximum"  
Fang blinked and looked around. "Where am I?" he said, looking around in confusion. He didn't look confident at all. "You are on a field trip. And this, is Maximum Ride. Do you recgonize her,Nick?"  
"No. No I don't!" he said in a monotone and I groaned.

*

Two Months Later

Sitting up I climbed out of bed and ran to the window. "Fly away Max! Fly away!" I heard, the sound of Nudge shouting for me to run, echoing. I looked out to see just trees. "We can fly higher than any bird on Earth" Fang had said. A crow flew past the window. "Goodbye Maximum" 'Nick' had said after being brainwashed.

Now fully awake, I walked out of the flat and slammed the door after me. I had spent two months moping around, and now I was going to do something constructive. I was going to find my flock again.

A.N Thanks for reading chapter one, I hoped you enjoyed it. I will of course, update soon, but if I get tons of reviews then I will update tommorrow *wink wink*. R+R peeps :) 


	2. Chapter 2

I grabbed my backpack and flew to the School. Yes, that's right, I was _willingly_ flying to that hellhole. When I arrived, terrified yet determined, I smashed a few windows and flew in. I found myself in a small *gulps* experiment holding room. I spotted too teenagers cowering in dog crates. Grimacing, I unlocked the cages and they crawled out of the cages.

Standing stiffly, I looked at them. I had to find a way to save the Flock, but helping these people wouldn't hurt right?

"What are your names?" I asked, looking at them sympathetically.

"Jay and she's Ellie" the boy croaked.

I stepped back. "How long have you been here?"  
"It feels like years... We were taken from our school. They experimented on us."  
"What did they do?"  
" Wings" Ellie whispered and I stepped back into the wall.

"Wings? You mean, like these?" I said, unfurling my wings.

They nodded, dumbfounded.

"Come on!" I shouted and jumped out of the window.

"We can't fly!" the boy pointed out and I groaned.

I grabbed them by the shoulders and managed to lopsidely fly and landed almost immediately. Exhausted I stared at them.

"Who are you?" Ellie asked, looking angry.

"Just a... girl. Genetic freak. I'm not a whitecoat."  
"You're like us" the boy whispered.

"Yes. Yes. I guess you could say that. Out of curiosity, how old were you when you were stolen from your families?"  
"We were fourteen"

I hissed. Me,Iggy and Fang were fourteen, was it possible Itex was trying to replace us?

I turned on my heels and flew back into the School, leaving Jay and Ellie to fend for themselves. Once inside the School I snuck into an office and sat down at a desk. The laptop was already signed it, so I opened a folder labelled "Experiment Avian". Clicking on the file marked 'memory' I read on.

***Observation of the six subjects suggested that they are planing a campaign against Itex (see file on "Germany,Director,Itex"), with comments online on "Fang's Blog" hinting at a worldwide strike out against Itex companies. The six subjects, were tracked, via a microchip in Subject Nine (Maximum Ride), and were found to be travelling the world; located in places ranging from Antarctica to an army camp.**

**To protect the privacy of our experimentation, and to monitor the effects of memory drugs on avian hybrids, five of the subjects were injected with Formula A. Subject Nine was released, to be monitored until a later date. ***

Itex was behind all this; but how?

Hearing a crash behind me, I jumped and spun around to see Jeb standing in front of me.

"Nothing lasts forever" he said, holding a golden pendant. I snatched it out of his hands, and ran from the room.

The pendant had the word Monique engraved on it.

Monique was Nudge's name, but what did all this mean?

_AN _

_Chapter 2!!! R+R and I might update 2moz_

_:)_


	3. Chapter 3

Fingering the pendant, I jumped into the air and started to fly away.

"Wait!" screamed Jay and Ellie.

"What?" I said, hovering a few metres in the air.

"Take us with you" they begged and I hesitated. They could be traitors- plants by the School, but even if they were- I only had to worry about myself, not the Flock. I could take the risk if it meant I wouldn't have to be alone, right? The School would know because of the chip, where I was anyway.

I gave a curt nod, landed and ran towards a red car. Climbing in and hotwiring it, I started the engine and the three of us drove away.

"Why are you helping us?" Jay asked when we were a few miles from the School.

"Because I've got nobody. I need to have friends" I said, more to myself than to them. Coughing, I glanced at the pendant.

"Monique" it said, engraved on the back of an angel. Groaning, I hit it against the door, in anger.

Frustrated, I stared at it, and saw the tiniest print on the bottom of the angel.

"3rd West Ave" it said, with a school name, for a school in California.

Without hesitation, I started to drive towards the school.

*

The three of us finally arrived there a few hours later,at about three o'clock. Students were streaming out of the school. Ellie and Jay sat in the car and I hovered above. I had shown them a photo of the Flock and told them what to do. About fifteen minutes later, I had spotted a group of five nervous kids standing by the door to the school. Angrily, I landed and walked up to them.

"Fang?" I said nervously and the oldest boy shook his head.

"My name's Nick. Do I know you?" he said and I flattened a hand over my mouth.

"Ellie! Jay! Now!" I screamed and they came running.

"You don't recognize me?"

"No" 'Nick' said.

"Fang! I'm sorry. So sorry"  
Remembering the pendant, I took it out of my pocket. "Is your name Monique?"

One of the girls nodded and I pressed the pendant into her hand.

It was as if they would never remember.

As a last resort, I turned to Nick and said desperately, "Do you have wings?"

The five of them instantly turned hostile. "Is this a joke?" Nick said nervously.

"U+A" I whispered softly, and looked down at my shoes.

"It isn't a joke" Jay shouted and Nick looked ready to thump him.

"It could never be a joke" I choked out before sitting down on the pavement.

I locked eyes with Fang, and saw him look at me as if he was almost recgonizing me.

**Fang's Flashback**

**They grabbed them and I struggled to escape. There was a girl in front of us screaming. I think her name was Max? She screamed and she hit out but still we couldn't escape. **

**"Fang" she screamed at me, and then ran towards us. **

**I heard someone shout "Remember" and then nothing.**

**Everything turned black.**

"Is your name Max?" Nick said, scared.

I nodded and he looked like he was about to scream.

"Do I know you?" Nick said, confused.

"_I _know you" I said nervously and he nodded and unfurled a pair of black wings.

"I don't know how and I don't know why. I've never seen you before, but somehow I think I can trust you, you know?"

Terrified and angry, I stood up and stepped backwards against a tree.

"Fang" I whispered.

"Are you ok?" he asked concerned, and tucked in his wings.

"Yes."

I didn't dare show them my wings. I didn't even dare to say anything else. I just ran away, Ellie and Jay following.

Because, they looked like my Flock - but they weren't.


	4. Chapter 4

I mean, literally, yes they had the bodies of my Flock - they weren't clones or anything. But really, they were just shells of the people they once were. Nick, he wasn't really Nick, he was Fang. And he had forgotten. Screaming in frustration, I looked at the confused figures, still standing outside the school.

Slamming the car door, I climbed in and turned on the engine. Ellie and Jay said nothing.

"Do you actually know how to drive?" Jay said, seriously.

I had ran and ran and ran for my whole life- yet he was worried about me having a driving license?

"Don't worry" I said cooly and we drove off.

Fang; he remembered something, just for a second. Just by seeing me - did that mean there was a chance for all of them? Slamming on the brakes, I climbed out of the car and ran back towards the school. Nick was standing there staring at me.

"Listen. You've got to believe me. I'm... I'm your best friend Nick. You just can't remember me."  
He shook his head. "I wouldn't forget someone like you" he said softly.

"Can you fly?" I said, trying a different tactic.

He blushed and shook his head. "No. That would be impossible, right? I might have wings but..."

Using all my strength, I grabbed him and rose into the air. At about ten thousand feet I stopped and hovered there, still holding Nick.

"Who are you, Max?"

"Maximum Ride. I'm not saying anything else" _You should already know who I am._

"You have wings. You can fly though. It's like... fate. Like people were meant to fly"

No, evil scientists just made us that way! I didn't tell him that though, of course I didn't, I was playing nice.

Suddenly I heard a siring blaring and gulped.

My day had just got worse.


	5. Chapter 5

I looked down in the direction of the siren and Nick stared at me.  
"You're acting like you know me" he whisphered. Swiftly, I landed and dropped him. "I don't know you F..Nick"  
"You were going to say something else" he accused.  
"It doesn't matter what I was going to say. You don't know me. And I don't know you. I'm sorry Nick, I shouldn't have got you involved in this"  
I couldn't do it. I couldn't talk to Nick. I had to get away from these mindless imitations of the Flock.  
I walked away before he could stop me and drove away. "Where are we going?" Ellie and Jay asked and I smiled grimly.  
"Dr Martinez's. She's my Mother, she'll know what to do" Liar. She won't know anything any better than I do. But I needed family right then.  
A few days later, we arrived on the porch of 's house.  
I knocked on the door and a slightly dazed Ella answered. "Max?" she said, frowning.  
I nodded earnestly, and the three of us walked in.  
Valencia was standing at the kitchen door smiling. "Max! You're here. Who are your friends?" she said in the way any mother would.  
"They're not from the Flock" I whispered and she frowned.  
"Well how do you know them? Are they from the School"  
"I met them there, they are just like me"  
I nodded and they unfurled their wings nervously.  
Over a cup of hot coco I told everything to Valencia.  
"We can't fly" Ellie explained.  
"They've all forgot" I sobbed and shook my head.  
"How can I make them remember? Flying didn't help!"  
No-one knew what to say. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a scrap of paper. Written on it in Fang's spider scrawl handwriting were the words,  
'Max. What do these dreams mean? Of wings and birds and a Flock, and flying like you. Nick'  
That was hopeful - was he remembering? 


	6. Chapter 6

That night, me, Ellie and Jay slept inside that car and I returned straight to the school that Nick was attending. I still can't call him Fang. Because he's not. Everything that made him Fang is gone.  
He's like a mindless Flyboy.  
"Maximum, the Flock are irrelivant" the Voice says, but that cannot be true. I would not have survived leaving the School without them. They could never have not mattered. Never, you hear me?  
"The Flock are liabilities" The Voice is wrong again. Who could see their family as simply liabilities. It is all wrong. The Voice is wrong, as if it is going mad.  
Again, I am left wondering who the Voice actually is.  
And if I can trust it.

A.N Sorry for the short chapter- I am going on hols so this is the only chapter for a week, and I didn't want to leave you without an update for too long XD.  
R+R 


	7. Chapter 7

**A.N Sorry for the lack of updates. Anything in Italics is the Voice talking.**

_**The Flock are pointless. Mistakes. **_

How can the Voice say - well think that? How? And if the Voice is just me being insane, does that mean that... I don't want to save the Flock? Or is the Voice programmed by Itex?

_I am not programmed by Itex _the Voice intoned and I sigh angrily.

How can I save the Flock? How?

_Maybe they don't need saving. Maybe they're safer like this._

_Ignorance is bliss._

The School will get to them.

_Does it matter what happens to them in this state Max? After all, like you said "He isn't Fang. He's a mindless Flyboy". And that is more true than you think._

Yeah, except Nick isn't a Flyboy. He's just... mindless. Artificial.

_How do you know he isn't being programmed by the School? _

They wouldn't... they would! I swore and realised that they would, that I didn't know what would happen. I, the unstoppable Maximum Ride, had just been frozen. I could do nothing.

_How do you know the School isn't forcing you to do things?_

I don't have to do what you say.

I have free will.

I have free wi-

I have fre-

I have...

Nothing.


End file.
